At one point considered to have been the most densely populated place on earth, nearly thirty years after its demolition, Hong Kong's Walled City of Kowloon continues to be a topic of significant cultural memorialization and lively academic discussion. Yet despite the researchers' best efforts, its origin and early history continue to be riddled with fundamental inaccuracies. Tracing back to key primary sources, this article upholds that the Walled City was selectively built by the Chinese on empty government land between late 1846 and 1847, systematically arguing that it was therefore not an architectural palimpsest with an undue “centuries-old” history. Seeking to bring clarity as to “why” predominant academic discourses to date have differed, the article scrutinizes two of the most influential published narratives on the topic by Elizabeth Sinn and Julia Wilkinson, demonstrating how a fundamental lack of integration of key primary sources has resulted in the current state of knowledge. Closely aligned with and committed to efforts to decolonize the historical record, the article also proposes that such sources should be made more accessible for proper study, in the hope that narratives about the Walled City's origin and early history take account of the perspectives of those who built it.

The syntactic function of the sentence-final de has been widely discussed in the academic circles. In the Lianjiang and Maoming dialects of western Guangdong, the corresponding form of the sentence-final de is ge [kɔ³³], which is equivalent to de3 in Mandarin and highly parrallels de3 in development trajectory. The [kɔ] at the end of a sentence in the dialects of western Guangdong has a dual nature. It can be analyzed as a structural particle while conveying a broad confirmation tone. When expressing assertion and confirmation, two [kɔ]s can appear at the end of the sentence, representing an intermediate stage in the evolution of [kɔ] from a structural particle to a modal particle. The co-occurrence phenomenon exists not only in the Cantonese dialects of western Guangdong but also in the Hakka dialect of Anyuan (Kongtian) in Jiangxi. This dialectal fact confirms the evolution process of “structural particles>modal particles” and provides important clues for the discussion of Mandarin de and other related issues.

The morpheme po55 in the Yanzhou (Jiande) dialect functions as either a verb of giving or an object marker (Cao 2017). In the former case, po55 patterns with the ditransitive verb gěi in Mandarin Chinese, where the mode of transfer is semantically underspecified, while in the latter case, po55 marks distinct thematic roles of the post-po55 NP, akin to bǎ. The multifunction of po55 results from the grammaticalization pathway from verb of giving/helping to object marker, as defined by Chappell (2007). Through the extensive comparison with bǎ and bǎ-sentences in this paper, we argue that the post-po55 NP must be affected in a specific way and is always associated with the resultative state, due to the realization of the event denoted by the VP. By employing the linking framework in Randall 2010, we propose a unified treatment of po55 based on causativity, which ultimately leads to the conclusion that causativity constitutes the crucial component of the underlying Conceptual Structure of po55, while the morpheme po55 is lexicalized as a strict causative item, albeit its dual status in the grammar.

Gong Yan (born in 1974) is known as a spiritual “master” throughout China today because of his “Unitive spirituality of Taiji,” which he also calls the “Interior Taiji.” The number of religious sisters, seminarians, priests, and laypeople who have followed his formation is impressive. It is a spiritual practice that integrates modern psychology with the traditional Chinese philosophical concept of Taiji. This concept can also provide a new interpretation for Trinitarian theology, Christology, and theological anthro-pology. In this paper, the author will present how Gong Yan systematizes his spirituality by articulating Chinese Taiji philosophy, modern psychology, theology, and Christian spirituality in order to explore what inspiration his innovative theories and practices can offer to the Christian theological and spiritual tradition.

In an investigation of students and teachers of various languages, Ruesch and colleagues (2012) discovered that the two groups held different perceptions regarding the effectiveness of motivational strategies (MSs). However, consid- ering learning environment significantly influences MSs (Dörnyei, 2001), situ- ating students and teachers in a more specific environment is recommended when comparing their perceptions. This study examines the perceptions of students and teachers sharing the same learning environment to identify any differences in perceptions regarding the effectiveness of MSs. The participants included 316 students of English at a Japanese technical college and six non- native English teachers. Statistical analyses on questionnaire data collected showed that both groups perceived the overall effectiveness of motivational strategy (MS) similarly, which is inconsistent with Ruesch and colleagues (2012). One possible interpretation for this discrepancy is that the current study was situated in a single second language (L2) learning environment—specifically English—whereas Ruesch and colleagues (2012) conducted their study in multiple L2 learning environments. Therefore, the teachers in this study had a better and more accurate understanding of how to motivate students. Addition- ally, no significant differences were found in students' perceptions of MSs across groups with different L2 proficiency and motivational intensity.

Social justice and gender equality have long been promoted in schools and educa- tion sectors in Hong Kong. However, it remains unclear whether these efforts have led to meaningful changes in children's literature popular among Hong Kong readers. In particular, the extent to which recent children's books have moved away from male-dominated narratives and improved female representation warrants further examination. To increase gender awareness in young readers, parents, teachers, and librarians in the local community and beyond, this paper examines the gender representation in seven Grade 3 English e-chapbooks catego- rized under Reading Recovery (RR) level 22 (for readers aged eight to nine) in Highlights Library, one of the leading digital reading platforms in the world. In terms of the male-to-female ratio in the book titles, book cover illustrations, and central characters of eBooks at RR level 22, the study shows that female charac- ters outnumber male characters in most e-chapbooks catalogued in the digital library. Female characters are no longer underrepresented. In terms of gender discourses, Fairclough's critical discourse analysis (CDA) is used to observe the gender power relations in the narratives of the seven Grade 3 e-chapbooks. All seven e-chapbooks at RR level 22 exhibit different levels of influence from feminism

Second language (L2) testing research over the last two decades has witnessed a noticeable shift from measuring multiple validities to presenting evidence to the argument-based validation framework, but seldom did they examine the argu- ment-based validity of the Hong Kong Diploma of Secondary Education Exami- nation (HKDSE) English Language speaking test (hereafter referred to as HKDSE speaking test), which is taken in the form of group interaction that considers not only the validation components based on Levelt's (1989) speaking model but also international competence. The current study aims to validate the HKDSE speaking test by presenting evidence to back the warrants drawn in the domain description, explanation, and utilization inferences within the argument- based framework. The study adopted the qualitative approach by analyzing different sources of artifacts, including the constructs, task test samples, marking criteria, and authentic group discussion samples, as well as transcripts of the interview with four prospective task-takers. Results indicate that despite high consistency between most constructs, marking criteria, and theoretical expecta- tions, the non-specifications of the interaction context, participants' roles, and task purposes in the majority of the test prompts make it hard to fully justify both the target domain and explanation inferences. The interviewees' disregard of the representativeness of the test scores in manifesting the language use in real-life contexts has also undermined its validity in terms of utilization inference.